A Twisted Fairytale
by Thousand Spirited Birds
Summary: Their love wasn't a fairytale, but that just made it a reality. DeiSaku.
1. Team 7

**Author's Note: I AM NOT SUPPOSED TO BE DOING THIS. I'M BEING A VERY VERY BAD PERSON. I SHOULD BE OBSESSIVELY TYPING UP A TWILIGHT STORY RIGHT NOW AND I DON'T KNOW WHO MY SCARY OBSESSION WITH DEISAKU FICS CAME FROM. I have finished this story in my head. There is no certainty that I will do so on the computer. It depends mainly on your reviews and everything. I actually plan on finishing my twilight story on word first and then updating chapters. SO YEAH! IF YOU NO LIKE and you want me to change the pairings or something and rewrite then I will (though I will be sad). I an okay with ItaSaku, GaaSaku, and SasoSaku. Any others and my updates will come slower than once a week.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, Sakura and Deidara would have about eighty itty bitty kids with itty bity mouths on their itty bitty hands creating a lot of havoc in this world.**

* * *

Team 7

Sakura lay sprawled across her bed, mumbling incoherently. Somewhere in her mind she knew she was acting in a way that would make Shikamaru extremely proud. However, she had an amazing reason to not be outside training her butt off. She was waiting for something extremely important. She was also getting extremely tired of waiting-which, now that she thought about it, didn't really make any sense. She was growing extremely irritated.

Extremely. Extremely. Extremely.

Sakura growled and punched her pillow. Darn window, darn bird, darn gorgeous blondie whose letter was about to arrive six days ago. She growled again and stared viciously at her dumb window. And then, just like God had heard her or something-pfft, like that would ever happen-an average looking bird pecked at her window. On closer inspection, one would realize immediately that it was made of clay, but of course, it was so intricately detailed that the one person to realize would be Sakura. Her previous frustrations forgotten, she rushed to pull open her windows. She hesitantly poked the bird's beak, and the bird poofed into dust, leaving in its place a letter. She hastily grabbed it and rolled it open-

_Dear Sakura,_

_I miss you. _

_Sasori wanted to send you a puppet, but then the bird would be too big. He'll give it to you later, I suppose. I won't be able to see you for awhile, I'm sorry. I hope your team isn't super weak or something; I don't want you to get bored. Oh yeah, speaking of that, Itachi wants to know how Sasuke is doing. Well, he didn't ask, but he OBVIOUSLY wants to know. Anyways, how are you? Anything new and cool going on? How far have you gotten in that jutsu? You better start packing a separate bento for Kisame; he eats half of all the food you send us. Cloud detected our existence, that's why we're gonna be down low for awhile, yet I'm still sending you letters. I get kinda worried sometimes, that people are gonna find out-about us, even if we have that plan. Well, I hope the team orientation thing goes well for you. Oh, and this letter is probably late, like I said we're kinda down low._

_Love,_

_Deidara_

_P.S. Pein says hi (actually, his words were "offer her my most cordial greetings")._

Sakura smiled softly and rolled the letter back up. His wishes for her to get into a good team were still valid, since the orientation would be tomorrow. Or technically today, since it was seven. Which also meant she was gonna be late.

She sighed and danced rather disgracefully into her bathroom. She had the displeasure of rushing through her hot shower and zipped through brushing her teeth. She quickly dried her hair with chakra warmed hands and slipped into her ninja attire-a black Haruno Clan dress with mesh leggings. She strapped on her kunai holster and tied her headband into her hair.

"Alright! THE Sakura Haruno is ready! After all it doesn't matter who I get paired up with, they all suck, except for Sasuke," Sakura said punching her fist into the air.

She vaguely realized she was talking to herself as she jumped out her window and onto the street. As she passed by the Yamanaka flower store, she hoped, she desperately hoped, and ho-

"Oi Forehead!" Called an extremely obnoxious voice.

Sakura sighed; this was an unavoidable part of her day.

"What is it pig?" She replied, exasperated.

"You think I'll let you get to Sasuke-kun first??? HE'S MINE! YOU HEAR ME?" She screamed, falling in step with her.

"Yeah, how can I not?" Sakura responded, cringing.

"Argh, you always think you're high and mighty don't you? MAY I REMIND YOU THAT SASUKE-KUN IS MINE!" She screeched yet again.

"Yes, I do think that. My memory isn't that bad. In fact, you tell me he's yours about every damn day. And, that behavior isn't very attractive, if I maybe so bold to say," Sakura silkily said, hoping this would make her go away.

Ino glared, and started walking a little faster. Sakura was soon glaring at her back. The dumb pig really knew how to irk her and in a few minutes, Sakura's pace matched hers. It was only a few moments before they started racing eachother.

------------

"I definitely won, my foot is an inch farther than yours!" Ino scowled.

"Which just means you have freakishly large feet," Sakura retorted back

Ino didn't pay any attention though, because then she saw someone.

Gorgeous black hair. Coal, icy eyes. Strong arms. Who could that possibly be?

"SASUKE-KUN!!!!!!!!!!" She squealed.

Sakura sighed at the deluded girl's immaturity before plopping herself down next to Sasuke, smiling happily when she heard Ino's enraged roar. Sasuke sat emotionlessly, ignoring everything going around him until a boy in an orange jumpsuit kneeled on the table in front of him and glared. Naruto Uzumaki. Of course. He was the guy with a delirious crush on Sakura. Sakura shook her head and stared at the two boys glare at eachother. Suddenly, Naruto pitched forward.

Sakura blinked.

The fangirls blinked.

The boy who accidentally pushed Naruto blinked.

And a rather disastrous fate was stopped when Sakura's gloved hand slipped between the small space between their lips.

Sasuke's lips were touching Sakura's hand. Naruto's lips were touching Sakura's hands. Before the fangirls could freak out and Sakura could gag, Iruka-sensei walked in.

"Sit down everyone, today's a very special day. HEY! Naruto, sit!" He snapped.

"Iruka-sensei, what's so important about today?" Naruto asked, clueless.

Iruka-sensei sighed, "I'll be announcing teams today."

"Oh! Haha..." Naruto laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head.

"Okay, Team One…" Iruka-sensei started.

Soon, everyone was paired up. A very displeased Ino was stuck with Shikamaru and Choji, and a sad Hinata ended up with Kiba and Shino. Sakura sighed, and glanced between Naruto and Sasuke. Somehow, she felt this wouldn't end well.

"You will meet your Jounin leader this afternoon. Naruto, please don't embarrass Sakura and Sasuke too much," Iruka-sensei smiled.

Naruto scowled at Iruka-sensei as every left to go outside for their morning weapon training.

---------------

Afternoon came much too fast for Sakura's liking. Her sushi was burned. How the hell do you burn sushi? Sakura was not a good cook.

As she slowly trudged into her new team's designated room Sakura let her mind wander.

"_Only one more year… I better get that jutsu ready…I should send a letter back to him soon…_

"Uhh…Sakura-chan, you plan on going inside?," Naruto questioned, his voice breaking her from her reverie .

Sakura laughed, "Yeah, sorry."

She slid the door open, revealing Sasuke already sitting on one of the benches. Naruto grumbled something about punctual temes and brushed past her. Sakura sighed and followed him, taking a seat next to Sasuke. They sat in strained silence for about two hour. It was probably the longest Naruto went without talking. Of course, within that time, he'd already set up a prank to punish their soon-to-be sensei; one that was extremely childish and definitely not well-thought out. But, sadly, good things never last.

"WHERE'S THE FREAKING TEACHER?" Naruto yelled.

"Naruto, he's-

"GAWD WHAT TYPE OF JOUNIN IS HE????"

"Naruto-

"HASN'T HE EVER HEARD OF 'EVERY MINUTE COUNTS'???"

"Actually, Naru-

"GEEZ, WHAT A LOSER!!!!"

"Yo," Said a completely different voice.

Plop. That was the blackboard eraser, which landed softly on the masked ninja's gravity-defying grey hair.

In three seconds Naruto was rolling on the floor laughing and Sasuke and Sakura had a mildly incredulous look on their faces. It didn't make sense for a Jounin to fall for that. Sakura never knew her bad luck went that far. She wanted to cry.

"My first impression, hmmm…I hate you," The Jounin said bluntly.

Sakura face palmed, Sasuke stared, and Naruto stopped laughing.

The Jounin smiled, "Meet me on the roof."

With that he disappeared.

Sakura turned to glare at Naruto, "YOU IDIOT! REMEMBER WHAT IRUKA-SENSEI SAID!!!"

"Dobe…" Sasuke muttered on his way out.

Sakura followed him, still fuming, while Naruto walked a little ways off, dejected.

------------

"So, introduce yourselves, tell a little bit about who you are; your likes, dislikes, dreams…that sorta stuff," The Jounin.

"Why don't you go first?" Naruto said, still a little moody.

"Me? Well, alright. I'm Kakashi Hatake, my likes and dislikes aren't very important, and my dreams for the future? That's not important either. Okay, the blonde kid can go first, and we'll go from there," He said pointing to Naruto, then, Sakura, and then Sasuke.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki; I like ramen and Sakura-chan. I hate the three minutes I need to wait for ramen to boil and temes, and my dream is to become the hokage...so everyone respects me!," Naruto said grinning.

_Hmmm…interesting_, Kakashi thought.

Sakura's lips twitched up, no matter how annoying he was; she'd never be able to dislike him.

"I'm Sakura Haruno, I like reading, trying to cook, and training, my dislikes are getting bored, and failing at my dishes, my dream is…well that's not important," Sakura smiled.

_Haruno…Where have I heard that?_

"Sasuke Uchiha. I don't like many things. I dislike a lot of things. But my ambition is to kill someone who wronged me in the past and to resurrect my clan."

_Just as I thought._

Sakura glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. Wow, that was hardcore. And resurrecting a clan would take a lot of babies. However, Sakura really didn't want to think about that.

"Well, it's very nice to meet you Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura. Meet me tomorrow at 6 on training ground 7. There is going to be one final test. If you fail, give up your hopes of ever being a ninja. In fact there's a 66% chance that you'll be sent back to the academy. Also, you probably shouldn't eat breakfast, unless if you wanna throw up. See you!" And on that cheerful note, he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"Well, Sakura-chan, you up for ramen?" Naruto asked, grinning.

Sakura shook her head, "Actually Naruto, I have to train, you guys should too."

Sasuke nodded, and walked away.

"Alright Sakura-chan, see you tomorrow, 'kay?," Naruto smiled walking the same way Sasuke did.

Sakura smiled, and decided to head towards her favorite training area. She jumped and leaped on the rooftops, trying her best not to stumble and fall, until she landed near a grassy area. Beyond that was a worn out iron gate, and the ruins of what was the old Haruno compound. It was ancient, old, and dilapidated. Paint was peeling off in a few of the sturdy walls and there was still the slightest stench of dried blood. Sakura pushed open the rusting gate, and closed it behind her. The compound seemed to have been through the worst of storms, and had been torn to shreds. However, ahead stood one small house, only slightly affected by the architectural slaughtering around it. Near it sat a damaged boulder. Sakura smiled and walked over to it's and sat down Indian style on it. She inhaled and exhaled, and cupped her hands in front of her. In a few moments, pure white chakra started glowing. She sat there staring down at it. It was definitely ready, but she'd never be completely sure unless if she got to try it.

She lay back, and her back arched across the uneven surface of the rock.

"Wahhhhh, I wish there was something I could do…Oh the letter!" Sakura sat up super fast, and dashed inside the small house.

The small home was modestly decorated. There was a small kitchen, and a table with three chairs. Down the hallway there were two bedrooms and corresponding bathrooms with them. There was also stairs from one of the bedrooms leading underground, where there was a makeshift bed and countless scrolls for jutsu technique. Medical scrolls were spread throughout the bed and on the ground an ancient book titled _Kurama-Forbidden Genjutsu. _Obviously, the house was a lot bigger than it looked from the outside. Sakura took a sheet of paper and started writing-

_Dear Deidara,_

_I miss you too._

_I'll be looking forward to getting that puppet. I have Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki, the kyuubi on my team. Tell Itachi that Sasuke is obsessed with killing him at the moment, there's definitely a lot of hatred there. I'm okay, I think the jutsu is complete, but I would need to try it out to be sure. I'll pack a different bento for that stupid shark okay? And I'm not really worried about Cloud. If you could blow up some place like Stone, then you can take care of sound right? When will we be able to see eachother again? You told me you wouldn't be able to see me last time too. We have our test tomorrow, and if we fail we'll be kicked out. I'm not worried about me or Sasuke, just Naruto. I don't want him to fail. But don't get jealous or anything._

_Love,_

_Sakura_

She sighed. She would need to buy more good food for them. Food from Rain was good from what Deidara had told her, but Konoha was a luxury. She smiled, his last few letters had been a bit brief, she could only imagine why. Pein was extremely paranoid, and didn't like Deidara writing informative letters to her. In fact all he expected Deidara to write was "I miss you. Love, Deidara." Sakura liked Pein, she had to meet him once, and she supposed he'd be nice if you weren't on his well, if you weren't on the side opposing him, which she was currently in.

Sakura walked back outside, she couldn't send the letter until she bought more food. She settled for going back out to the training grounds, the only place that was not demolished by an act of insane violence. The way the training grounds looked however, others would think differently. Trees were uproots the ground was literally bulldozed and large rocks lay randomly about, as well as a lot of crushed gravel. Sakura picked up one of the large rocks, which were probably twice her weight and crushed into dust. Chakra enhanced strength; along with extremely high ranked medical jutsu was something Sakura had focused on, along with her clan jutsu. She reached back and gently traced the diamond Yin seal on the back of her neck.

One second she was standing in a destroyed training ground, and in the next, she had promptly ripped her arm off. She grit her teeth, so she wouldn't cry out in pain and immediately started regrowing her arms. She didn't need her seal for this sorta stuff unless if she was really low on chakra, which would probably happen if she kept ripping her arm off. She flexed her new fingers and looked at the bloody mess on the ground.

"Ugh, I disgust myself. I'm so not eating dinner," She mumbled, turning a little green.

About the only way Sakura could practice her medical jutsu was to injure herself. She was not sadistic enough to harm poor little animals, only heal them again, and then hurt them all over again. Disturbing images immediately filled Sakura's mind. No, definitely no dinner. Though Deidara would severely disapprove of her skipping meals.

She smirked, she was definitely gonna eat breakfast tomorrow.

* * *

**Author's Note: Please review and tell me if it totally sucks and if I should delete it, yeah?**


	2. Passed

**Author's Note: Thoughts and flashbacks are both in italics. I hope you guys are smart enough to be able to tell the difference between the thoughts and italics. To make it easier, I labeled the flashbacks, and only direct thoughts have been italized. **

**Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, Akatsuki would win and Deidara and Sakura would be passionately making out. Obviously, that's not happening. **

* * *

Passed

_------------_

_"Ow," Sakura whimpered._

_"You okay?" Asked a blond haired boy, who was jumping from rooftop to rooftop; carrying her bridal style._

_"I think so," She muttered, reaching up and healing her cut._

_"That's good, yeah. And it's amazing you can do medical jutsu," He offered her a smile._

_She looked up at him. He was incredibly handsome, even at such a young age. He looked around Sakura's age, maybe a year or two older._

_"My name's Deidara, yeah. Yours?" He asked._

_"I'm Sakura," She said quietly._

_He slowed down to walking, but he still carried her._

_"Where do you live Sakura?" He asked._

_"I'm not supposed to tell strangers where I'm supposed to live," She relied. _

_He laughed. Sakura thought it was the prettiest sound she ever heard._

_"Not even good looking ones?" He asked, mockingly serious,_

_She giggled. Deidara thought it was the prettiest sound he ever heard._

_She shook her head, her lips twitching up._

_"Well, I saved you from those stupid kids, and you know my name. That means we're friends."_

_"Friends?"_

_"Yeah."_

_"Like, good friends?"_

_"Best friends, yeah."_

_"You, you aren't kidding?"_

_"Of course not."_

_Sakura then noticed his forehead protector. How could someone so young be a ninja? She was only five, and she was still stuck in the academy. Well, she knew different villages had different ways. _

_"But you're from a different village, how can we see each other every day?"_

_"Friends don't need to see each other to be friends, I can send you letters. And, I'm gonna be staying here for awhile, yeah."_

_"Really?"_

_Deidara couldn't help but smile at the look of utter delight on his face. He didn't know what drew him to her like that. _

_"Now tell me, where do you live?"_

_"The Haruno compound, um District 36."_

_Deidara nodded._

_"I'll visit you every day. Is that okay, yeah?"_

_"Yeah."_

_The laughed in harmony. Of course he visited her; she pulled him in like gravity. They talked, teased, and listened to each other laugh._

_-----------------_

Sakura was dead on her feet. Seriously? Waking up at five in the morning and being forced to eat leftover burnt sushi didn't put her in the best of moods. She stumbled out of the Haruno compound and disappeared in a swirl of cherry blossoms. Seconds later, she reappeared at the team training grounds. She trudged sluggishly towards the seventh training ground. Sheesh, it just had to be this far away right? Yeah, what a lucky person she was. After what seemed forever, she finally came upon training ground 7, a grassy wooded area with three stumps in the middle of a large clearing. Sakura walked over to them, yawning as she went. Soon, she noticed Naruto's orange-clad form, practically crawling over to the stumps, looking more like he was unconscious than conscious. If Sakura wasn't a pro medic-nin, then she would think he was sleep-crawling. Then, Sasuke sauntered over to them, wide awake. His cold, emotionless face betrayed nothing-no yawns, and definitely no sleep-crawling.

Sakura and Sasuke stood for awhile, precisely one hour, before Sakura decided to sit down next to Naruto, who was still dozing off. After awhile though, even Naruto was fully awake, and the stupid sensei of theirs' still hadn't come by yet.

"What is taking him so long????" Sakura sighed.

"IF HE'S ALWAYS GONNA BE THIS LATE THEN HE REALLY SHOULDN'T BE A JOUNIN!" Naruto yelled loudly

"It's too early for you to be yelling dobe," Sasuke said, mockingly.

"Shut up, T-E-M-E," Naruto snapped back, enunciating the insulting name.

Sakura sighed again. She now wished that she wasn't sitting in between them. In fact, she wished she was far, far away from Konoha right now. She actually wanted to be very, very close to a certain blonde. One that was not only intelligent, but also sarcastic, teasing, mean, arrogant, and had an infuriatingly egotistical attitude. Obviously the latter statement clearly eliminated Naruto from that choice of blondes. Sometimes she missed Deidara so much, if felt like her already mangled (yet slightly patched up) heart was being scraped by a pointy kunai knife.

Before Sakura could continue to wallow in her misery and ignore Naruto, there was a soft poof, and there appeared their much delayed sensei. _Finally. _

"Yo," He grinned.

Sakura wanted to scream and rip her hair out. Sasuke glared. Naruto, obviously, chose to act vocally.

"YOU'RE LATE!" He yelled, jabbing a finger at him.

"Well, you see, I had to help this old lady with her groceries," He chuckled awkwardly.

"What the hell is an old lady doing buying groceries at 6 in the morning?" Sakura growled.

Kakashi shook his head, "Enough of this chit chat, we have to get started. As you know, you are going to be given one final test; if you fail, you shall be sent back to the academy," He held out two bells and shook them, "You must get these bells from me by noon to pass this test."

Sakura frowned, "But Kakashi-sensei, there are only two bells…and three of us…?"

She let the question hang, getting the answer even before she finished.

"That's right, one of you guys get to be dropped back, just for my own sadistic pleasure," He grinned.

Sakura gulped, she didn't want any of them to get dropped back into the academy.

"Alright! Let's go!" Naruto yelled, charging at Kakashi with a kunai in his hand.

Before he knew it, Naruto was standing in front of Kakashi, his hand snapped behind him in a tight hold and Kakashi's hand tugged at his unruly golden hair.

"It's good that you're coming at me with a killing intent, but I haven't even said 'go' yet…GO!" Kakashi said loudly, letting go of Naruto.

Sakura and Sasuke immediately disappeared among the trees and shrubbery, remembering and following all they learned from their ninja academy instructors; and in Sakura's case, also Deidara. However, Naruto neither remembered nor followed. He and his orange-y self challenged the silver-haired ninja to a full on duel. Pfft, really? What a weirdo.

While Naruto was being pummeled and Sasuke was god knows where, Sakura decided to attempt to devise a good plan, she didn't know their sensei's strengths or weaknesses, and she knew that she wouldn't learn anything from watching his fight with Naruto. In fact, all she learned was that he was a complete pervert who read that disgusting orange book that was not meant for children. Ew.

After she realized she couldn't come up with anything and would just have to wait for Kakashi to come and try to murder her, her thoughts drifted off to a certain S-ranked blonde missing-nin. Not for long though, because she felt a noticeably stronger chakra coming after her. He probably didn't feel the need to mask himself (no pun intended) from a bunch of genins. Sakura bristled at the thought. She had no choice but to leap out into the clearing; she knew he had every intention of rendering her completely immobile.

"You sensed my chakra? Impressive. I feel like you might actually be able to do something. And after you, all I'll need to finish off is Sasuke," He said, not looking up from the repulsive book.

Sakura tensed, "What did you do to Naruto?"

"Oh, nothing really," He replied deviously.

Before Sakura could claim that he was lying, the leaves around her lifted a danced through the air. Genjutsu, very weak genjutsu.

"It hurts my feelings that you don't think I'd be worth stronger genjutsu," Sakura sighed, pouting.

**_-Flashback-_**

_"Deidara stop trying to kiss me, you're supposed to be telling how you do that," Sakura glared, pouting adorably._

_"Do what, yeah?" He smirked, knowing he was getting on her nerves._

_"You don't even counter genjutsu, you see right through them," She stated, narrowing her eyes._

_"Oh yeah? I didn't know I did that. You're crazier than I thought," He replied, grinning._

_".A." She enunciated his name and narrowed her eyes threateningly._

_"Alright, alright, don't kill me so fast," He muttered._

_In a simple moment, he was right behind her, his hands trailed down her shoulders and his sweet breath fanned her face. Sakura unconsciously leaned into him, breathing in his amazing scent of clay and vanilla._

_"Alright, take a deep breath, and memorize your surroundings, the time, everything around here that's reality. The person who casts the genjutsu will obviously alter something from reality," Deidara whispered into her neck._

_"What if it doesn't?" Sakura questioned._

_Deidara frowned, "It's called genjutsu for a reason. It makes you see fake images, I thought you were smart, yeah?"_

_Sakura elbowed him softly, and was rewarded by a soft chuckle of amusement._

_"It'll take a lot of practice. It even took me awhile. No guarantees how long it will take you," He said, and she could feel him smirking against her neck._

_She glared ahead, "Shut up."_

_He laughed, and she couldn't help laugh along with him._

_It took her awhile, but the next time she saw him, she had gotten it right. Even though he told her he'd learned it much faster than her, his eyes glinted with pride._

_-**Flashback-**_

Kakashi's eyes widened, "Not possible, you didn't even try to counter it, and yet…"

Sakura smiled. Now, while he was still shocked at the fact that the pink-haired ninja actually had a brain, Sakura slowly disappeared and darkness inked into Kakashi's eyesight. Sakura smiled from somewhere out of the line of genjutsu, if he really wanted to go towards her true strength, then so be it. He was the one that started it.

Kakashi's eyes narrowed, "_Kai!_"

Nothing happened, no matter how determined he was the genjutsu wouldn't wear off. The illusion wasn't frightening; it was just severely unnerving, being able to only see darkness. Kakashi guessed that was the point, to slowly bring the opponent down to madness. It was very remarkable that a genin could do such a powerful jutsu, but it didn't explain why he couldn't escape. He blinked, and promptly bit into his finger-rather cannibalistically too.

He was returned back into the real world.

Kakashi reached inside his pocket to make sure the bells were still hanging there, but after a moment realized there was only one bell. _No way. _He knew he would have to check her out with the Hokage later. How a genin could make such a powerful genjutsu was beyond him.

However, Sakura-who was far away with the bell- wasn't feeling anything remotely positive. She was scared and all words related to that emotion. She hadn't been planning on using that genjutsu, in fact she didn't use forbidden genjutsu like that unless if she was in really tight situations. First of all, she had never been in a really tight situation where she was even strong enough to do jutsu like that and that was definitely not a tight situation with Kakashi. She had originally been planning on doing a simple two-layered genjutsu to distract him.

Sakura sighed; she really didn't want it to be what she thought it was. It would probably help if Deidara knew about this, since he had extensive knowledge on sealing jutsu. However, she didn't want to trouble him. If she wrote down what she thought was happening to him, he'd get wrinkles and go prematurely gray. And anyways, their letters always had to be brief, who knew who would intercept them. Sakura knew Deidara always worried about her-and them, too-even though even never really told her that, and had very odd ways of showing it.

Sakura blinked realizing that the three stumps were in view. She walked towards them, not at all surprised that Naruto was tied up. Sakura shook her head at the sound of his obnoxiously loud voice. She reached him just as the clock ringed. Sakura smirked and jingled the bell tantalizingly in front of him.

He gasped, "Sakura-chan! Seriously??? You got a bell?"

Sakura was slightly insulted by his surprise but nodded nonetheless. Soon, Sasuke approached them.

"_You, _got a bell?" He asked, his emotionless voice tinged with incredulity.

Sakura sighed, she was getting extremely annoyed. Before she could reply, Kakashi appeared in front of them.

"Extremely…remarkable, Sakura. I didn't know you had such an aptitude for genjutsu. Sasuke, you did a good job too, though you didn't get a bell, your skills are impressive. Naruto…uh, you're being dropped," Kakashi said in a bored manner.

Naruto's eyes widened and he blinked rapidly

**_Say no. He's part of your team; you can't let that old man fail him._**

"No. We're a team right? You can't just fail him like that," Sakura glared at him.

Sasuke sighed and nodded, "Keep him".

"I'M NOT A PET SASUKE!" Naruto yelled.

Sakura glared at him, "You're not making this easier, idiot!"

Naruto quieted down, fearing his own safety at the look of utter cruelty and promising death in her eyes.

Kakashi smiled, "Okay, good job! I was planning on failing you if you didn't beg for him to be in the team. You know, you're the first of my teams that actually passed."

He watched in amusement as Sakura and Naruto whooped and Sasuke smirked.

Kakashi nodded to each of them and disappeared.

"Well, I have to go my some food, so bye Naruto, Sasuke!" Sakura smiled happily at each of them and disappeared in a swirl of cherry blossoms.

Sasuke turned heel and started towards the Uchiha clan training grounds.

Naruto grinned and started to try and walk to Ichiraku. _Try _being the key word.

"WHAT??WHAT???? I'M STILL TIED UP????? BUT WHYYYYY???...I knew they'd do this…," He sighed.

-------------

Sakura sat on the ground. She didn't have enough chakra left to send the letter that very day, so it would have to be tomorrow. In front of her sat two big bentos that looked deceptively homemade. However, she was not concerned with making S-class criminals think she could cook gourmet dinners.

She was intent on finding _it. _The same _it _that had forced her mother to ruthlessly slaughter everyone in the Haruno clan, and then herself. Sakura touched her forehead and let the chakra spread.

* * *

**Author's Note: There won't be any updates within next week since I'm going to be at Yosemite for a school trip. Please review!**


	3. New Mission

**Author's Note: Yosemite was nice :D I REALLY WOULD LIKE SOMEONE TO BETA FOR ME! THANKS!  
**

**Disclaimer: THIS IS MY LAST DISCLAIMER! I DON'T OWN NARUTO!  
**

* * *

New Mission

She felt something click inside of her. She'd established a connection.

**_SAKURA-CHAN! IT'S BEEN YEARS!_**

_Why are you back? _

**_Is that how you greet your conscience?_**

_You are not a part of me! You are simply an evil thing my mother implanted within me because of her dumb genetics!_

**_Wouldn't that make me a part of you?_**

_Nothing that could take lives just for the fun of it could be a part of me._

**_Alright listen, Sakura-CHAN. Sadly, I can't take over your mind and turn you completely insane because you're not full Kurama and while your genjutsu might be good, it'll never be like us great gods'. I can help you in battle and give you a little strength if you let me. Because even if you don't wanna admit it, I AM A PART OF YOU. A violent bloodthirsty part, but a part indeed._**

_What will Deidara say?_

**_You'll need to tell him eventually, and don't worry I won't annoy you much; I'll just give you a few tips. _**

_I don't want him to know about you._

**_Gee, thanks. I think I'll go to my secret corner and cry my heart out._**

Sakura sighed and buried her head in her hands; she wasn't going to tell Deidara about it. No, not until he came to take her away from the village, which was five months from now. Sakura sighed and performed the hand seals for the wind jutsu that would send the food to Deidara.

---------

"Ah, Kakashi, what is it that you need?" The Hokage asked, smiling.

"Hokage-sama, I was wondering if you could give me some information about Haruno Sakura." Kakashi asked.

"She's one of your students, right?" The Hokage said, frowning.

"Yes, and she's the only one I don't know anything about," He replied.

"Well, not many people know what actually happened within the clan. It was kept a secret and only a select few people know. However, if it may help you, I'll tell you the basics," The Hokage said gruffly.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," Kakashi nodded.

The Hokage smiled, "It's not a problem. Okay, Long ago, before the Great Ninja Wars, the Haruno Clan used to be formidable in their medical techniques; their skills surpassed those of the sannin Tsunade. However, slowly this notable streak within them started to die out. Soon they just became a civilian trading clan. It was unfortunate, since the War started only a while later. Now, about eighteen years ago, a young girl named Sakumo arrived out of nowhere, saying she seeked refuge and that she was from the Kurama Clan. We had Ibiki screen her to make sure she wasn't a spy. She wasn't one, but I realize now that I should have looked into her clan name; none of us have ever heard of it. Not many people know about her existence, she was a secretive young girl-so it was just me, Ibiki, and the Haruno Clan, who offered her stay in their compound. Four years after that, she had gotten married to Otsuko Haruno, another private thing. I only know of it because of the records"

He paused for a moment and took a deep breath. He stood up and walked to the file cabinets. He opened on and took out a thick file. In intricate calligraphy, it stated _Sakumo Haruno._

"As you may know, the kyuubi attacked two years later. Sakumo Haruno came to me after the attack and requested that the Haruno Clan be a secret, it did not exist. I didn't know what came over me, but I agreed. The Haruno Clan was already rather secretive, known mainly for their dirty trades and most ninja were happy to go along with the fact that it had been annihilated by the fox. The next thing I heard, eight years later, pink-haired Haruno Sakura comes through the window to me tell me her mother slaughtered her clan. She had then killed herself. After me and a few ANBU got rid of the bodies, Sakura told us that all she could of her mother. After she said that her mother's mind had been in turmoil before she killed all the clan members we looked into the Kurama Clan under Ibiki's suggestion."

He sighed, and rubbed his temples, "The Kurama Clan's aptitude for genjutsu rivals that of…it's unrivalled. It is so strong that some can cause physical harm with it. However, it this power, the clan members start to lose their minds and go crazy. That is my suspicions of what happened to Sakumo. Of course, I'm leaving out many details since much of Sakumo and the Haruno Clan's files are blank. I only hope what happened to Sakumo doesn't happen to Sakura."

Kakashi shook his head, "Neither do I, Hokage-sama."

However, Kakashi couldn't wrap his mind around the fact that the genjutsu Sakura had cast on him so long ago had only been broken when he hurt himself.

-------------------

"That's it; I've had enough old man!" Naruto yelled jabbing his finger at the Hokage.

Sakura blinked in surprise. Sure, digging out plant roots, searching for lost cats and walking dogs were pretty boring and low-paid missions, but it was part of being a Genin. Sakura didn't object to it.

**_HEY!!! I OBJECT! CHA!!!!_**

Sakura scowled, and was more than once grateful that the thing inside of her wasn't outwardly bloodthirsty. She glanced at Sasuke, wondering what his thoughts would be.

"The dobe has a point. We need tougher missions if we're gonna get stronger," Sasuke said.

"Sakura-san, do you have anything to add to this?" The Hokage asked looking exasperated.

"It doesn't matter what I say Hokage-sama, it'll be two to one," Sakura said, sighing.

"You guys, you can only take missions given exactly to you by Hokage-sama. There is no room for objection, got it?" Kakashi said sternly.

"That's right, all genin perform D-rank missions, C- and B-ranked missions are tougher, and mostly done by chuunin, A-and S-ranked missions are extremely difficult missions and are done mostly by Jounin. So, stick to you level Naruto," Iruka said.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, but what will we ever learn if all we do is pull weeds?" Naruto grumbled.

"Alright Naruto, I'll give you a C-ranked escort mission, how about that?" The Hokage said gruffly.

"Who are we escorting? A princess? A daimyo? Or some other cool important dude?" Naruto asked eagerly.

Sakura shook her head, he was grumbling only about a second ago

"Naruto, it's C-ranked, the missions you're suggesting a B- or A-ranked," Kakashi replied, annoyed.

"Quite," The Hokage replied, "Tazuna-san, please come in."

Team 7 turned around, only to see an old drunken looking man wearing a ridiculous hat. In his hand was a sloshing bottle of what Sakura thought was likely to be sake. He was plainly dressed, wearing simple villager clothes and sandals.

"WHAT??? WHY ARE WE STUCK WITH THIS OLD DRUNK??? WHAT'S SO IMPORTANT ABOUT HIM?!" Naruto yelled, pointing his finger at the old man.

"Shut up, you idiot," Sakura hissed.

"Eh? I'm stuck with a bunch of stupid brats? And who the heck is the short, obnoxious one?" He asked, his voice slightly slurred.

"Who's the short, obnoxious one?" Naruto questioned cluelessly.

Sasuke and Sakura looked down at him with pointed looks. _Down._

"WHAT? WHY YOU-" Naruto started angrily, only to be interrupted by the Hokage.

"Tazuna-san is a bridge builder that needs to get to the Land of Waves. It is your mission to simply escort him there. Tazuna-san, I promise that these ninja are fully capable of keeping you safe," The Hokage nodded.

"Right…Well, I have to leave early, so tomorrow at seven? The gates," He said indifferently.

He didn't wait for a reply and turned and walked off. Sakura blinked at the space he had been occupying a few seconds ago.

"He was friendly," Sasuke murmured.

"Alright, here is the mission briefing scroll, come back safe," The Hokage nodded to them, smiling.

"We'll come back bored," Naruto grumbled.

Kakashi chuckled awkwardly, "Let's go train, to prepare for our mission alright?"

The three nodded and followed Kakashi out.

----------

Sakura sat in the dark underground room, perusing medical scrolls that she could recite in her sleep. She just needed something to do. However within moments her mind left the grotesque picture of a girl transplanting someone's liver into her own body. Deidara was probably on a mission with Sasori right now. No doubt they were arguing about their art. She had always been on neutral territory-Deidara's explosions were amazing if you weren't caught in them and Sasori's puppets were almost human if they weren't trying to kill you. Abruptly, she felt a flare of chakra.

Sakura stiffened ever so slightly, and then relaxed again. Within moments, she felt the softest of pressure flutter past her shoulders.

"You shouldn't read in the dark, yeah, it's not good for your eyes," He murmured.

"You can't seriously be throwing my own medical advice back at me," She threw back, leaning against him.

He chuckled and squinted down at what she was reading.

"The Painful Removal of Internal Organs? Just doing some light reading?" He questioned sarcastically while eyeing the ten feet scroll.

Sakura smiled and she twisted around to face him, "I thought I wouldn't be seeing you in awhile?"

"Got lucky, yeah. We have a mission to the Land of Waves so I took a detour here to see you," He winked.

She combed her fingers though his bangs, "I have a mission to the Land of Waves tomorrow."

"Really? What are you supposed to be doing?"

"We gotta transport this old bridge-builder named Tazuna, you?

"I'm not too sure; Sasori's the one who keeps track of those things. I'm supposed to meet him at Waves in a few hours."

"A few hours?" Sakura pouted.

He smirked, "As much as I'd love to listen to your medical lectures, I'm pretty sure there's a guy I gotta blow up."

However, even as he said it, he nuzzled his face into the crook of her neck and breathed in her warm scent. He tightened his arms around her and pulled her closer to him.

"Just a few more months," He said softly before pressing his lips down softly against hers.

His kisses always held more than what could be put into words. They always held a rough, passionate edge in them. At the same time though, they were soft and drawn out. Sakura smiled softly into the kiss. She didn't know how long they did this, how long he trailed butterfly kisses up and down her neck or how long she ran her fingers though his hair. Finally, she pulled back from his soft lips. His lips were always soft which was surprising considered all the conditions he'd probably been through.

"I wonder how much chapstick you use?" She murmured teasingly.

"Obviously less than you shampoo," He grinned back.

It took a moment to sink in.

"YOU!" She screeched.

Deidara laughed as he led her on a wild chase through the house and out. His eyes glittered in amusement as she tackled him to the ground. She tried to look mad, but ended up giggling instead. Deidara reached up to brush her hair out of her face and in doing so, he saw the sky. The moon shined brighter than the sun; had time really gone by that fast?

"I have to go," He sighed, nodding towards the sky.

He pulled Sakura up with one hand and formed a clay bird with the other. Sakura watched as the bird flew to the ground and became a life-size version of its miniature self. Deidara jumped on top of the bird and donned his Akatsuki hat. He then took Sakura's hand and gently spun her around.

"Love you," He whispered while twirling her.

Before she could say anything back however, he had already disappeared. His visits were like that, they had to be. Short, fleeting, sometimes Sakura wondered if he'd actually been there or if it was just her impending mania acting up.

--------

"ALRIGHT! I've never been out of the village before!" Naruto yelled.

"Naruto, a ninja is stealthy; you can't yell like that, got it?" Kakashi reprimanded.

"But Kakashi-sensei! I want all my enemies to know I'm here…alright, fine," He quieted down at his teacher's one-eyed glare.

Sakura looked unimpressed at the surrounding greenery and started walking while slowing the chakra rotation inside her to cool herself. Why did she live in the Land of Fire?

As the continued strolling down the subtly paved road, Kakashi noticed something oddly peculiar. Most people wouldn't notice random puddles of water. However, Kakashi wasn't most people. What was a puddle doing during summer, only a mile out of Konoha, and in Fire Country? No logical calculations could ever be able to support that fact. Something, he sensed, was definitely amiss. However, Kakashi kept right on walking.

Suddenly, razor sharp claws chopped him up into itty bitty floppy bits.

When one's team get's mysteriously ambushed by evil-looking masked ninja, and one's instructor gets brutally slaughtered, one would be expected to immediately retaliate or do some sort of cool fighting move. Sakura did not do that.

"Hey," She whined, "That's my sensei's floppy bits."

She only realized the stupidity of her words after she had said them. Even if what she said was utterly idiotic, she could have covered it up by sounding angry, cold, aggressive, or some other tone that Sasuke might have used. But no, Sakura whined. If Deidara knew, he'd never let her live it down.

However, the ninja paid no heed to her words and dashed towards Tazuna with startling speed. Sasuke intercepted one of them while the other kept racing towards Tazuna. Sakura's eyes narrowed at him and in the blink of an eye she stood in front of Tazuna with a kunai in her hand. Where the hell was Naruto?

"I'll protect you Tazuna-san!" Sakura yelled ferociously.

**_SHANNARO! LET'S KILL HIM!_**

Right before he could scrape her face off with the claw, he fell forward and his clawed hand grazed Sakura's right arm. She bit back a gasp, the stupid claw was poisoned. Yes, that was just her luck, to get poisoned scrape form a claw bigger than her own body.

"YEOW!!!!"

Apparently, Naruto was poisoned too. Great.

"Good job, Sasuke, Sakura! Naruto, don't stiffen up so much next time okay? And Sakura, Naruto? Those wounds are poisoned," said a miraculously alive Kakashi.

Sakura glanced towards where his bite-sized remains had been and saw that they had been replaced by chipped up wood. Of course, he was an elite ninja; he'd never be defeated like that. Sakura's attention then turned to Naruto-he seemed to be having some sort of emotional turmoil inside of him. He looked up suddenly with new determination, a determination that Team 7 greatly feared. This was the very determination that embarrassed them, forced them into the blame of his stupidity and just showed what a brainless idiot he sometimes was. He pulled out a kunai. Oh no.

"From now on, I will follow my shinobi way and never let my teammates fight alone!" He yelled.

Then, much to Sakura's and Kakashi's horror, as well as Sasuke's amusement, he plunged the kunai into his hand and dug out the poison.

"Dobe," Sasuke started, "Thanks for letting yourself bleed to death."

Naruto gasped and stared down at his gushing wound. Sakura shook her head and pulled him roughly towards her. Her hand glowed with green chakra as she healed his wound and leaving no trace of its actual existence. Having taken the poison out while Naruto had been giving his speech, Sakura healed her own wound in a matter of seconds.

_"She heals wounds at an inhumanly fast rate," _Kakashi thought wonderingly.

"Sakura-chan, wow! That's so amazing!" Naruto yelled.

Sakura smiled and turned towards Sasuke. She gave him and Kakashi a quick once-over to make sure they didn't any sort of injuries other than mild exhaustion. Meanwhile, Kakashi gave the bridge-builder a calculating look.

"Those shinobi were after you weren't they?"

* * *

**Author's Note: The is the most Inner Sakura will appear in a chapter and I'm sorry if it seems rushed (I really need a BETA). Please review and give constructive critism! I really really really need reviews! Thanks!**


	4. Ideas

**Okay, I said I wouldn't quit on a story, but it doesn't seem like this interests very many people!!! So, I put up a poll on my profile for new story ideas that I've had. I also put them here-**

**The ****Burning** **Thorns** (ItachixSakura)- Sakura was sent on a simple mission by Tsunade. Of course, any simple mission given to a member of Team 7 will go dangerously awry. Akatsuki was in a real need of a medic, and who better to ask -coughCAPTUREcough-than the Hokage's apprentice?

**The** **Cold** **Flowers** (PeinxSakura)- She wanted to change everything, she wanted Sasuke to be with her and not become a cold avenger, and she didn't want Naruto to live each day, knowing at the back of his head that it could be his last. So, the voodoo tramp gave her the power to change everything. At a cost.

**Crash** **and** **Burn **(DeidaraxSakura)- Danzou's dictatorship caused the most prominent ninja in the Hidden Leaf to run off. Sakura, not wanted to trouble Naruto went on her own-not a good idea. Who said Akatsuki still wasn't recruiting?

**These summaries are NOT going to stay-I will change them!!!! By the way, if you have any ideas, please PM me :D  
**


	5. Fighter

**Yup. I'm back from the grave. Those of you who actually bothered to wait, thanks! Those of you who didn't, I'm sorry :( ANYWAYS. I decided I would finish this story, since I have such an awesome plot going on in my head. I'll decide what to do after that. CHECK MY POLL PEOPLE! And also from now on, my chapters are gonna be named after the song that's currently playing on my radio. So I'm sorry if they don't make sense.**

* * *

Fighter

_Sakura pouted adorably. She really, really, really wanted the Orange Pekoe tea. She jumped again, but her hands hardly even skimmed the bottom edge of the shelf. She scowled. Deidara was training, so she couldn't go to him. H e had told her to stay away from him when he was training, that it was dangerous. Sakura didn't know HOW it was dangerous, but she respected his wishes. _

_She sighed, it was time to ask the scary shopkeeper. His curly white mustache and dark, sunken eyes made him look exactly like the bad guy in the horror movie Deidara forced her to watch with him. She threw one last despairing glance at the incredibly high shelf. One would hope to be a little taller at the age of nine, but Sakura hadn't grown an inch._

_"You need help," A very familiar voice drawled._

_Sakura turned and smiled happily. "Deidara!" She wrapped her arms around him._

_"Woah, serious withdrawal issues," He grinned, patting her head._

_She frowned at him, "Actually I wanted you to get me the Orange Pekoe tea."_

_He rolled his eyes, "Yeah. Okay."_

_In one fluid motion, he reached up and plucked the box of tea from the shelf. He glanced at the nutrition facts and the mock-glared at her._

_"It's really high in sugar, that means more training."_

_"Uh, I get a medically low amount of calories. The tea is good for me, and anyways, I'm sharing."_

_"With who?"_

_"You."_

_He smirked at her, "Really?" By this time, they were at the counter. Sakura hid behind her best friend as he bought the tea. He turned his head and raised his eyebrow, but didn't say anything. _

_"Were you okay?," He asked, once they were outside._

_"That clerk scares me," Sakura muttered._

_Really, he probably thought she was weak enough already, but she couldn't lie to him. Easier said than done. He sighed and looked at her. He was going to leave Leaf soon, how was she going to survive without him? It was that second, that Deidara decided that even if he was going to leave next month, absolutely NOTHING would take him away from her, and he'd always protect her._

_The next day, all the gossip was about how some creepy clerk got arrested for trying to kill a customer._

Naruto gawked, Sakura blinked rapidly, and Sasuke's eyes widened. The bridge builder however, didn't look very surprised.

"Yes," He sighed, "I didn't have the money to pay for this mission, so I simply registered it as a C-ranked escort mission."

"Those ninja we fought were Chunin, that would easily push the rank up to a B, maybe even an A. We're sorry, but we have to take you back," Kakashi said firmly.

Tazuna opened his mouth to reply, but Naruto intervened, "No way! We have to finish this mission. The old man entrusted us with this job, we can't just back down like wimps; we gotta behave like ninja!"

Sakura nodded sagely, "That's right, Sasuke and I have the skill to accomplish this mission, and though it may not seem like it, so does Naruto."

Sasuke smirked while Naruto gaped at Sakura, not realizing the hidden compliment within the insult. Kakashi looked at the three them and glowered unhappily at their determined faces.

"This is an A-ranked mission, no matter how strong the three of you are, none of you have the mental capacity or teamwork to do such a thing," He countered.

"Then this would be an educational experience," Sasuke shot back.

Before Kakashi could reply with some witty remark, Sakura added, "As our sensei, you wouldn't be doing your job if you simply took us back."

At this point, Naruto, who was feeling rather left out in their intellectual debate, very brilliantly completed Sasuke's and Sakura's side with a loud, "Believe it!"

Kakashi sighed, and while running his hand through his already ruined hair, he said curtly, "Fine. Let's go."

Sakura and Naruto whooped and high-fived while Sasuke looked rather satisfied.

Tazuna nodded in their direction gratefully, though Sakura was the only one nice enough to smile back.

They kept walking at a normal pace-to accommodate Tazuna. However, Naruto was getting more and more pissed off. Nothing was happening. It was so freaking boring. Seriously? This was supposed to be an A-ranked mission, where was the damn action? When Naruto voiced this thought, Kakashi threw him an incredulous glance with his visible eye, but he was otherwise still ignored. He grumbled silently to himself as they trudged on.

After an hour of monotony however, the bushes on Sasuke's side started quivering. Naruto, who was deathly bored, let his imagination go crazy.

"Stand back Sasuke! I got this one!," He threw his kunai viciously at the bush. And out rolled a dying rabbit.

Naruto's eyes widened, and he immediately started hyperventilating, "Oh no! Oh no! Little bunny, I'm so sorry! Are you okay? Sakura-chan, heal it!"

"Naruto," She growled, "The rabbit's already dead."

Naruto's eyes grew as wide as saucers, but before he could say anything, Kakashi yelled, "Duck!"

The three genins fell to the ground immediately and Kakashi pulled Tazuna down with him as a sword barely skimmed his pack.

"Close call there Kakashi. Losing your touch, eh?," Said a deep voice.

The trio stood up and looked towards the direction of the voice. On a tree branch stood a heavily muscled and tan man with bandages covering a majority of his face and stuck into the tree across from them was a sword that was larger than him-probably the largest weapon Sakura had ever seen. She frowned at looked back up at the man, who was now staring intently at her teammates. He seemed oddly familiar, she knew she had seen him in the bingo book.

"Zabuza Momochi…" Kakashi murmured, "Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto, protect Tazuna-san!"

Then he lifted the side of his headband that tilted down over his eye, revealing a scar and mature sharingan. Sakura saw Sasuke's eyes widen out of the corner of her eye. It was definite that the eye was not his, due to the evidence of the surgical scar; but how did he get it? Before Sakura could ponder on this further, she and her teammates realized that they had yet to follow Kakashi's commands.

They followed his orders obediently; even Naruto seemed to realize the gravity of the situation. They each flipped out a kunai and positioned themselves carefully in front of Tazuna. Sakura quivered in frightened excitement as she watched their battle unfold before her. Kakashi and Zabuza exchanged fierce blows, coming at each other with intent to kill. Sakura's eyes widened and she drank it all up. Some part of her told her she should be focusing on protecting her client and that watching her sensei fight to the death was a little sick.

Kakashi fought flawlessly, but so did Zabuza and they both did a great number on each other. Soon however, it became apparent that Kakashi was slowing down. Sakura eyed her sensei with concern, and felt that horrible sinking feeling that something bad was going to happen. Sure enough, within moments, Kakashi faltered. That was all Zabuza needed. Within seconds, Kakashi found himself trapped in a Water Prison. He could hardly blink.

Naruto looked like someone had just handed him a bouquet of ramen noodles. "Don't worry, Kakashi-sensei! We got your back!"

Kakashi wanted to tell them to run away with the client for he really didn't want to face the destruction Naruto could cause by having anyone's back. His hopes of Sasuke and Sakura sensibly dragging him away were dashed at Sakura's next words.

"So, what's the plan?"

There was no PLAN!

"You have an interesting team there Kakashi. I almost feel bad about killing them," The Zabuza clone smirked.

If Kakashi could, he would be thrashing around, trying to distract Zabuza. Damn stupid water jutsu.

Meanwhile Naruto figured out his little plan.

"Someone needs to guard Tazuna," Sasuke said, and both he and Naruto looked at Sakura.

Sakura huffed and crossed her arms while Sasuke and Naruto pretended they didn't hear her muttering absurd swear words directed at them. As the two of them proceeded to carry out their plan, Sakura took out her kunai and assumed a battle stance-might as well pretend she was doing something that required talent. Pfft, sexist teammates.

While Naruto and Sasuke were enjoying themselves immensely and getting beat up, Sakura calculated their chances of succeeding the mission. It was rather slim seeing that they were fighting a jounin-level ninja. She turned towards Tazuna and looked at him with a cold and calculating gaze.

Flashback

"We'll always be watching you Sakura, remember that. I'm not as cold and heartless as people make me out to be, but I hope you make decisions that befit the standards of this organization."

Sakura looked back at Sasuke and Naruto; they were handling themselves well enough, considering that they were fighting a topper on the Bingo Book. Just for added measure though, Sakura placed a timed genjutsu (something she learned recently from the illegal scrolls Deidara sent her). It would go off in approximately five minutes and cause a tree to erupt from the ground and wrap itself around him, making him vulnerable to any attack until he managed to get out her genjutsu, and the only way that would work was if he gave himself a rather severe injury. The best part was that it was all in his head.

"Tazuna-san, which way were we going before we were so rudely interrupted?," Sakura asked, her eyes focused on the battle.

Tazuna gaped at her, "But, your team-?"

"My team will be fine, and if they aren't…well the mission is more important," She looked at him stonily.

Tazuna gave her a look of intense disapproval, but started walking towards the left, "This way, then."

Sakura followed him, completely on guard and trying to catch Kakashi's eye. She was losing hope, when finally his eye flitted towards her. She nodded and jerked her head towards Tazuna. He held her gaze for a second before turning his attention back towards the battle. Well more like moving his eye towards Naruto and Sasuke, who were thankfully distracting Zabuza enough for her and Tazuna to make a quick getaway. Since Tazuna obviously couldn't leap from branch to branch, Sakura resorted to just striding fast enough for Tazuna to manage to keep up.

"It was immoral for you to leave your teammates behind that way. I know you're a ninja, but you're young. Don't you care about their fate at all?" He questioned her.

Damn. This man was annoying.

"My teammates will be fine. You underestimate us Tazuna-san. The most important thing right now is completing this mission."

"But-" Crack.

Before Tazuna could finish, Sakura had flung three kunai in the direction of the audible crack. There was a flash of gaudy orange and a yelp, followed by a labored hiss. Her teammates; Sakura hid a sigh of relief.

"Geez Sakura-chan, ease up! You almost killed us," Naruto grumbled as he and Sasuke stumbled out of the bushes, bearing Kakashi's weight.

She ignored him and gave Kakashi a quick onceover. He was just knocked-out from exhaustion.

"Sakura," Sasuke said quietly, "Did you cast that genjutsu?"

Sakura didn't slow down as she nodded and replied, "If you guys died, Hokage-sama would be pretty pissed."

She felt the bridge builder's eyes on her as they trudged forward.

Tazuna's small town was quaint and had an attractive charm to it. If it wasn't for the fact that a big criminal lord had a vice-like grip on it, Sakura was sure it would be a tourist trap. The small village looked like it had been flooded, but missed the destruction. Many of the small houses were held up and out of the water by sturdy beams and the trees all held underground roots. It was quite beautiful really, the way the sunlight danced over the water's already shimmering surface. The homes were all made of poor looking wood, some of which seemed termite-infested. And on closer observation Sakura noticed that the people outside looked malnourished and the trees had an open barrenness about them. Well, it had only been a first impression.

Tazuna's home was similar to the others and housed two other people. It housed his daughter, Tsunami and her son Inari. Inari seemed to avoid them and stayed out of their reach. Tsunami however, was very welcoming and made a comfortable spot for Kakashi to sleep while she went about cooking dinner. Naruto told Sakura what happened while she and Tazuna had escaped and neither of them seemed to mind much that she had ditched them. Naruto also mentioned her genjutsu in the passing, not knowing it was her who indirectly caused Zabuza to gut himself.

They hadn't retained any injuries worth healing as Zabuza was distracted before he could do serious harm and Kakashi was quick to come to the rescue. Their primary focus was to await Kakashi's awakening. Naruto, who couldn't spend more than a few seconds being quiet, swiftly wove a tall tale for Tsunami, who ate it up with excited eyes.

"Naruto, if you could fight as well as you could make up stories, you would be Hokage already," Sakura said, shaking her head.

Naruto's indignant reply was broken by Kakashi's grunt, and Sakura's attention was immediately directed towards him. She pressed the cold compress to his head and he scrunched his eyes before opening them. In that second many small crinkles appeared around his eyes and Sakura realized that Deidara could probably kill someone like him. She didn't ponder as to why that thought didn't bode well with her mind. She was so not getting attached.

"KAKASHI-SENSEI! You're awake. You're really heavy, lay off the ramen!," Naruto yelled.

"Do you want the whole world to hear you?," Sakura growled at the same time as Sasuke scoffed, "Hypocrite."

Kakashi ignored them and while waving off Sakura's disapproving frown, sat up. Tsunami walked in and handed him a cool glass of water, gave him a warm smile and walked back out. Sakura liked this lady more and more. However, suddenly remembering the poor state of the village, she grabbed the glass from his hand and with a quick shot of chakra, disinfected it. Kakashi only shot her a questionable glance before gulping it down. He then proceeded to explain to them how he thought the Mist ANBU that Naruto had mentioned to Sakura was an ally or maybe even a teammate of Zabuza's. As he went on to explain, exactly what ANBU were, Sakura could clearly see his reasoning. What ANBU in their right mind would take a body somewhere else to dissect it? What if some freak occurrence caused the body to come back to life? He then told them that Zabuza probably worked of Gato, or he wouldn't have any reason to attack Tazuna and that he would train them to prepare for the battle.

Well. This was absolutely peachy. Sakura had the most boring week ever. There were no secret visits from Deidara, no sudden battles, no nothing. Actually, Deidara was probably already done with his mission. The "training" that Kakashi had planned for them was climbing trees-without hands. A formidable feat…Sakura had slow danced with Deidara on water. So Sakura had spent the whole week following Tazuna as he went about the actual land part of the village. It was there that Sakura realized how deprived the unfortunate village was. The grocery store, if you could even call it that, was so poorly stocked that Sakura was surprised the town had been living off such a meager amount of food for so long. On top of that, the Inari kid seemed to be brimmed up with pessimism. After hearing the story of Kaiza from Tsunami, it was understandable that he fervently believed that they would all die. However, it was really annoying listening to him bring HER spirits down.

And now, they were surrounded by the bodies of the bridge builders that worked under Tazuna, and Sakura, Sasuke and Kakashi stared at Zabuza and his masked teammate. The ANBU mask was probably stolen. If Naruto hadn't ditched them to go deal with something back at Tazuna's home then maybe the strain in the air wouldn't have been solid enough to be cut through with a knife.

Kakashi was the first to break the silence. "So, we meet again."

Zabuza scoffed, "Right, I came back from the dead."

Sakura tuned the rest of the conversation out. She didn't understand the point of such words. They could have killed each other by now. She was pulled out of her musings by the sudden clash of kunai and her vision being obscured by a thick mist. Crap.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. No doubt Zabuza would be aiming for Tazuna since Sasuke was fighting the ANBU imposter. Then, at breakneck speed Sakura's kunai clanged against Zabuza's gigantic sword.

"Impressive."

"Thanks."

Sakura changed her stance to intercept Zabuza's sword again, this time just a few inches from Tazuna's back. He froze and turned around rapidly and a corner of Sakura's mind hoped he didn't get whiplash. She put some chakra behind her force as she pushed against Zabuza's sword and he flew backwards. However, before Sakura could do anything else, Kakashi appeared in front of Zabuza.

Sexist. I could have definitely taken care of him.

So, Sakura spent almost the whole battle staring at mist. And the only implication that Naruto had come to fight was a rather large blasting sound and a blaze of ostentatious orange that not even the mist could hide. Sakura sighed. Like always she wouldn't get any serious action. Sakura held her kunai up and tried to pretend that she was doing something important. It was embarrassing, she knew she was the strongest member of Team 7, with maybe the exception of Kakashi. There was no need to be modest about it, she was trained by an S-class criminal.

The fight continued on without Sakura having any major part in it and she spent a majority of the time muttering darkly to herself. A majority of the battle passed in a blur, in between which she was only called to save Sasuke's life from major blood loss through senbon needles. And the only part that came back to her was when the ANBU imposter stood to protect Zabuza from Kakashi's lethal Lightning Blade. The expression on his feminine face when he rushed to save him-the determination, devotion, and love. Sakura would have that face carved in her memory forever. She would do the same for Deidara any day, with that same exact face.

And then, she saw, to her intense surprise, Zabuza tearing up at his teammate's death. She herself felt that she would tear up at the sentiment. She watched in awe as he took out Gato, and as Kakashi carried him and put him next to Haku. She bit her bottom lip to stop the tears from overflowing. She was so concentrated on not letting her emotions get out of control that she gave a sudden start when she felt a hand land on her shoulder.

Tazuna's gruff voice was kindly. "It's ok to cry you know."

Sakura shook her head, "That's against the Ninja Code of Conduct."

Out of the corner of her eye, Sakura saw Naruto frown unhappily at her and she briefly wondered what ran through Naruto's mind at that second.

"What should we name the bridge?"

Tazuna glanced at his grandson and replied, "The Great Naruto Bridge."

Sakura could feel a smile tug at her lips. She was proud of them all, but it was hardly fair since Naruto missed half the battle. She felt Naruto come up beside her and turned to congratulate him on his victory.

However, before Sakura could say anything, Naruto murmured, "I don't think we need to follow anything. We can all have our own ninja way."

* * *

**Author's Note: Okay, the Land of Waves happened like, two years ago, I hardly remember it. If I missed out any details, I'm sorry. HOWEVER, if any of the details I did end up being wrong, tell me! I'll try to fix it. I will rush trough the Chuunin exams as well, just so you know. So the next chapter will be kinda long, cause I'll include all three parts in the Exam. Sorry for any errors (I NEED A BETA) and please review!**


End file.
